First it was the fat chipper fiascle....

This morning was not a good morning. Not when I see the headline


“Chipper discusses uncertain future, difficult spring."


The article starts off just dandy (THAT WAS SARCASM)



After Chipper Jones discussed encouraging signs he saw from the struggling Braves in a 5-4 loss to St. Louis Monday, the third baseman confided his most difficult spring training has him wondering how much more he can take…

It mentioned Chipper struggling this spring and it hinted about him possibly not even making it through the year.

Hell, it even quotes him as saying...

“The body is starting to tell me every morning when I wake up that it’s getting close,” he said. “I’m signed through the end of this year. If I play in a certain amount of games, I got an option for next year. I don’t know what next year entails.

“I don’t know if I can make it through this year.”

The rest can be read here: http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2012/03/12/chipper-i-dont-know-if-i-can-make-it-through-this-year

I admit it I instantly thought the worst. I even cried. Yes, cried, tears were shed. I just keep thinking about how he hurt himself in 2010 and how we were not sure if he would ever play again. I’ve watched Chipper since I was ten and first saw him in 1995. I have his cardboard cut-out in my room. The day he retires will be a sad day.

This is why being a pessimist is bad thing. About an hour ago I’m scrolling the barves message board (which is how I found the first article) when someone posts a link to a new article. This one on the Braves official site

...Apparently he was joking.


"Unfortunately, I said it around two guys who don't know me very well, and they didn't realize I was kidding around," Jones said. "One of the guys asked, 'You think you can make it through the season with your knees?' I said, 'Make it through the season, I don't know if I can make it through tomorrow.' Obviously, I'm joking. That's an obvious joke. Really, I just came off the field after playing eight innings. I've had eight at-bats all spring. I was kidding around.

He goes onto say...


"If there was any question about whether I could make it through the season or not, I would not have come back [to play this year]," Jones said. "I will not only make it through tomorrow, I will make it through this season with no problem

Read the full article here:http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120313&content_id=27244272&vkey=news_atl&c_id=atl



I feel a million times better now. I even giggled. I do wonder how much he was joking though and now much frustration was talking. The braves have been doing well… not well.

I’ve heard of him being sarcastic before though. I do wish he would be more careful about what he says to people. Then again, maybe the guys were idiots. Now that I read the full quote and not just the ominous....

“I don’t know if I can make it through this year."

....It puts things in a much better prospective.

I must not puke on Chipper.

The Braves are doing their annual Caravan this week and next week,.

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/atl/community/caravan.jsp?loc=schedule

Sadly they are not coming to Evans GA this year where I have been going for the last two years. The next closest stop is in Columbia SC, which I hope to make, although I don’t know yet if we can make it. I hope so because Heyward is coming and I really, really want to meet him. Or well… get rushed through the line and get his autograph rather.


We are planning for Cumming though, which is the big stop with Chipper, McCann and Uggla. It is over three hours away and I want to get there at least three hours beforehand because I have a feeling the place will be a zoo. I just hope three hours will be enough. I will cry if I get turned away. Seriously bawl.


I just tend to get really, really nervous at these things. One year I was so sick to my stomach I ended up having to sit down on the ground so I didn't end up yaking.

Although I doubt they will let me, I am going to ask if I can shake Chipper's hand. I have gotten his autograph in person once before but I was a little disappointed because he never even looked up at me. I didn't even get to hand him my item to sign. You handed it to a girl who gave it to Chipper, and then he gave it back to another girl. I wanted to say something to him but I couldn't get a word out. My mom was still upset and has threatened to say how disappointed she was with him when we go this time. I'm scared I will get so nervous if he does look at me I will end up... getting sick on him. Sadly, I am only half kidding.


I also have a question to those Brave fans that had been to such events or any fans of bigger name players like Chipper. How were the lines? Is three hours enough time?

Why I picked McCann Can Triple

I might have told some of you this, or maybe not. My memory scares me sometimes. Anyhow, I was recently surfing youtube and came across a clip from a Brave game that lead to me choosing my username.

It happened a few years ago now and well... I will let you see.






Chipper just makes it that much better. It also happened to be his birthday. Chipper's that is.

So, where did you get your username from? Or blog name? Mine was because I was a rookie card collector.

Take THAT (chipper) doubters!

There where a lot of people doubting if Chipper wold even make it through spring training. A lot of comments where made about how he should retire and pack it up and how he will never be as good as he once was.

Well, I will let his spring training stats do the talking

407 batting average (leading the team)
15 RBIs (leading the team)
4 Home runs (leading the team)

and best of all ... No pain in his knee in the last few weeks!

I know spring training is not always and indication of how well a player will do in the regular season. I know he is not likely to have the stats he did in his younger years. But damn does it feel good to see him doing so well.


Now I will post some of my cards of Chipper.

Safe Chipper! (or it kind of looks like the pirates are heading to the dugout, but I still say he is safe, cause he's chipper.)

Hippee Chippe!

In the air after after just thrown a ball Chipper!

Big headed Chipper!

Posing Chipper.

Mooooooooooooooooore Chippa's!

Why I am such a big Chipper fan

When I say I am a Chipper fan that is a understatement. I am a fanatical, tyrannical fan of the man. Some would even call it and unhealthy obsession. Not Kathy Bates in Misery obsessed. I am not going to tie him to the bed and break his legs, nor would I be the creepy stalker who digs through his garbage. I do have some self control and sanity. However, he is usually the first thing on my mind when I get up and the last thing on my mind when I got to bed.

I would like to explain WHY I am the way I am with him and why I took the news so hard last night. There are the logical reasons. He is a great player, he is a Brave and I admit it, he is a good looking. There is another main reason though that not many people will share with me. After a year of this blog and getting to know some of you I feel comfortable bringing this up.

I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is on the mild end of the autism spectrum. In a nut shell it means I have a lot of trouble socializing. I talked about my anxiety around people in a previous post The anxiety stems from this. I sometimes feel like a deaf mute trying to navigate through the world.

It is one of the main reasons for this blog, so I can communicate with others on my own terms. The social interaction I get from you people and trough conducting trades is often the only social interaction I get. It has been a lifesaver for me.

I was diagnosed when I was 17. Previously I had never even heard of the word.. My family knew that these was always something a little “off” with me though. I would trip over my own feet, loud noises would make me cover my hand over my ears, I couldn't stand tags in shirts. Most of the time school was a synonym for hell. I was picked on horribly and just couldn't seem to fit in. I had seen doctors before. One mentioned I just needed some “friends” and that I could outgrow said issues.

It didn't get better and they did not just go away. In the 11th grade I had been having thoughts of suicide. I ended up seeing a psychologist and on the very first meeting she asked my mom if she had every heard of Aspergers. It fit me to a T. Finally we had answers for why did the things I did.

There are often other issues that accompany Aspergers. One of them being a special interest. People with Aspergers often get fixated on a certain topic. It could be trains, or dinosaurs, or whatever. They find out all they can about said interest and often talk about it obsessively.

For me that is a a person, Chipper Jones. Don't get me wrong, I love the Braves and baseball. but Chipper is "special." I know I talk about him to much. I bring his name up constantly around the house. Multiple times a day in fact. If a day went by that I didn't mention his name, my mom would think there was something seriously wound with me She is sick to death of hearing about Chipper and yet I have a very hard time not bringing him up.

If there is a Chipper item I have to get it, if he is on the news I have to see him, if there is an article about him I have to clip it out. I get anxious when I can't do these things. When I was younger I would say I wanted to marry him. The thing that I talk about endlessly, will no longer be in my daily life. My dream come true would be to meet him. To shake his hand would mean the world to me.

Now that obsession is gone. It is like losing a limb almost. He has been my interest for fifteen years. I hope that he may come back next year, but he might not. I will still follow the Braves and watch the games. I am a fan and Chipper will not change that. It just will not be the same.

Get your rear in gear wal-mart!

Yup, another wal-mart rant!

Buuuuut this was a different wal-mart!

This evening I went into Wal-Mart eagerly expecting to find Topps series 2. After all they had come out (Wow, has it only been two days? I was going to say a week ago) Thursday, surely they would have them out and ready.

Nope. There was nary a pack in sight. Just the series 1 cards.

I circled the display four times, each time expecting the cards to miraculously appear. (they didn't) I even searched through the lose packs and looked behind blaster boxes to see if they where hidden, like the prize in the cracker jack box.

...which suck now. The prizes in Cracker Jack boxes suck. They are just pieces of paper with jokes or riddle son them. I WANT A DAMNED PLASTIC RING!

And there are hardily ever prizes in cereal anymore. I remember a few years back they put mini bobble heads of baseball players in cereal. ..I forget which kind, but they had a Chipper and I went through four boxes before I found him. Best prize in a cereal box ever!

Now it is all for stuff you have to send away for. Money grubbing bastards.

...oh yea, this is a rant about wal-mart. HURRY UP AND GET TOPPS SEIRES 2 CARDS! I waaaaaaaaaaaaant them.

I am the GREATEST Brave Fan in the World!

Seeeee!
.
This proves it!

I found this in my closet while searching for a cord that goes to my portable DVD player. Didn't find the cord (my mom had it) but I did find this card. I am a pack rat at times and birthday cards are something I have a hard time letting go off.

Here is a look inside


"Mama Sis" was my grandmother. I say was, as she passed away from Cancer last year. She died on my birthday. By that time she was bedridden and had to be watched 24/7. She couldn't even feed herself. My mom and brother where with her when she took her last breath.

As for the name, it was something we always called her. My brother, my couison..... she was always known as mama sis. Even most friends called her Sis. I called her Mama Sissy.

Besides for me, she was the biggest Brave fan in our family and likely where I got my love for the game from. She used to watch every game that came on and when I was at her house, as I often was, we would watch them together.

Her favorite player was Greg Maddux. We bought her a shirt one year with his picture. She even wore it to a game, one of the two we got to take her to before she got sick. It got lost a few years later though. She would always claim that we had it and my mom would always argue that we didn't. We found it a few months back in the closet in our back bedroom.

I remember one our best traditions though was during baseball season when we where away from each other. Whenever one of us saw Chipper hit a home run we would ring each other. At times the lines would be busy because we would both be calling each other. When I wasn't able to watch the game, but knew one was on and the phone would ring during that time, I would KNOW it was her. I miss that more than anything. Being able to called her when Chipper does something.

I miss her, how she used to be before the Cancer took her. When she was able to name the players and would jokingly call Chipper's first kid the "Hooter Baby" When she would read Chop Talk and watch the games. When she would save the paper for me when it had something about a Brave Player. I wanted to go to more games with her. The two we went to just where not enough.

I hope they get Peach Tree TV in Heaven.

McCann's Lame Contest

So I've been wanting to do a contest. However, I really don't have that much to offer. I still don't have that much to offer really. What I do have is three packs of Donruss 1991 cards and two packs of 1993 topps series 1 cards. I know, not that grand, but it is free cards.

SEEEEEEEEE!



So if you want em, simply guess how may times Chipper Jones is displayed in my room. This does not include cards. Figurines, posters and pictures are included however. Person that gets it right are comes closest, wins. Contest lasts till next Saturday.

Not about baseball cards

For the first time in a long while, I didn't buy baseball cards.


THE SHOCK! THE HORROR!


Instead I bought the latest nerf gun, the Raider CS- 35. A really, really awesome gun.



<---------- BEHOLD (for those non link clickers out there)


I like nerf guns. Besides, for baseball cards they are my only... hobby I guess you could call it. Or maybe fascination would be a better word. I don't don't really use them with other people, unless you count my four year old nephew who enjoys shooting some of the smaller guns when he visits. He loves to shoot my card board cut out of Chipper (Yes, I have a life sized cardboard cut out of the man in my room.) I just like messing around with them and shooting foam projectiles.


I've always been something of a tomboy. Never really like dolls, always played with ninja turtles and G.I Joes when I was kid. I also enjoyed nerf guns and I have yet to grow out of that urge. Still a big kid at heart. Plus the guns they had where no where near as cool as they where when I was young.

A lot of people seem to like to point out how childish and what a waste of money the guns are. Personally I see no difference in this then a woman that goes out and buys her nineteenth pair of shoes. I find owning more than half a dozen pair of shoes pointless, and buying any more to be a waste of money. If what I like makes me happy and doesn't hurt anyone, then who cares. I think people would be lot more happy and a lot less stressed if they didn't put so much emphasis on doing what is socially acceptable and just did what made them happy.


...and enough rambling. I am curious as to if any of you have ever owned a nerf gun. Or what where your favorite childhood toys? Still have any toys out there today you wish you could get your hands on?


P.S Oh, wait, I did also buy one pack of cards. Sadly all I got where doubles and triples.


PP.S And my counter is whacked up. Seriously whacked up. You don't go from a hundred hits to 11,000 in a week.